PARENT SESSION
Organized Oral Session 30: Modeling movement at multiple scales
Organizer(s): J Fryxell, M Turner, and M Boyce
Wednesday, August 10, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 511 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Movement, social processes, and the population dynamics of re-introduced elk.
Haydon, Daniel *,1, Morales, Juan 2, Yott, Adelle 3, Jenkins, Deborah 3, Rosatte, Rick 3, Fryxell, John 4, 1 Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Glasgow, Scotland2 Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Storrs, CT, USA3 Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada4 Dept. Zoology, Guelph, ON, Canada
ABSTRACT- For many species fecundity and survival of individuals is likely to be sensitive to the group-structure of the population. Some of the most endangered species are social group-living mammals for which maintenance of a natural social population structure is important if growth rates are to be maximized. As natural environments are progressively fragmented and regional extinction rates rise, re-introduction and population augmentation will become an increasingly important tool for conservation of wild populations. It is therefore vital that these programs are managed to ensure the fastest possible normalization of population group and social structure. Opportunities to study demographic consequences of group structure are rare as they require that a high proportion of individuals from large populations be located frequently and over a long period of time. Using demographic and telemetry data from 119 Manitoban elk introduced into central Ontario we demonstrate how group structure and processes of group fission and fusion play an important role in determining population growth rate. We develop a model of dispersal and group dynamics founded on a bi-phasic correlated random walk, and use it to show the sensitivity of the demographic process to the social dynamics of this species.
Key words: group dynamics, telemetry, movement model, elk